Hair Cuts

Xander got his first haircut on Friday.  Okay,  not his FIRST actual haircut - but his first haircut by someone other than myself.  Everytime it's time for him to get a trim I say I'm going to take him somewhere because I'm never happy with the results of my cuts.  Everytime I don't for whatever reason.  This time was different...

James took both Jaxson and Xander to get their hair cut at Cookie Cutters for Kids. They had so much fun stuff going on that I don't think Xander even noticed he was getting his hair cut. Check out the cute car he sat in...

Yeah, he got pretty shabby before we got his hair cut.  Oh well, I actually like his hair a little longer; more stuff for me to play with and run my fingers through :)

They had fun video games for the kids while they're waiting... Jaxson especially liked these!

Poor Jaxson couldn't sit in the cute cars... I think he was okay with it though.

Background

I'm sad....

I really wanted to use pictures of the family in the background of my blog but I think I've learned why no one else does that.  Everyone's computer is going to display your blog differently based on their settings.   Oh well - I have a lot of fun papers to play with so I'll just have to be happy with that.

Okay, so the picture doesn't really go with the post - but when else am I going to use a picture of my little boy's sad face, dirt and all?  Those teary eyes do me in every time!

Family Funny

Xander came to me and told me his nose was stuck.  What?  "Stuck mom-mom Stuck, help please."  After a few questions and semi-answers I figured out he had a booger and wanted me to take care of it.

Every mom does it to their wee-little ones.  You see a monster booger in your infant's nose and you get it because you KNOW it will come out at the most inopportune time if you don't handle it now (like getting sneezed or wiped all over your shirt).  You take the bull by the nostriles and clean it out - you can admit it, we're all friends here.

Xander knows how to blow his nose and judging by the tissues in his room he had been trying to no avail.  Then I said something I never could have imagined saying, ever.  "I'm not going to pick your nose, you are getting old enough to do it yourself."  Uhhh.... oh well, we went with it  :)

San Diego - Take 1

(Whew - this is a long post - sorry there's not more pictures)

This last weekend was Fall Break for Jaxson. I had mentioned wanting to take the kiddies to the zoo at some point. I was thinking the Hogle Zoo, just a skip and a jump away. James got a great idea on Thursday afternoon that we should go to the San Diego Zoo! What can I say, he thinks big!!

I made the reservations, packed and was all set to go. When you book your travel online the San Diego Zoo emails you tickets to print. Stupid printer was out of ink so James ran to the store for more ink. I hurriedly put the ink and and waited for the Tickets-o-Fun to pop out of my printer. Stuff came out but my printer wasn't printing anything but the pictures! After messing with it for 45 minutes I finally saved the tickets on a CD and figured we'd find somewhere to print them on the way. Off we went at about 7:45 pm. The plan was to get to Mesquite, Nevada to spend the night and head out to San Diego early in the morning. That was the plan anyways...

As we pulled off the exit in Mesquite there was a strange thunking noise in the engine compartment. Oh, no... We got our room keys and drove to our room. The engine started SQUEAKING and SPUTTERING! We found a parking space (luckily - because it was packed!) and pulled in as quickly as possible. Before James could turn the car off it DIED! DEAD! DONE! We packed everyone up to our room (of course on the 3rd floor with no elevator nearby) and got kids to bed.

So... we needed a new plan. We were determined to have fun over the weekend and make it to San Diego but things weren't looking t0o good. If you all know me you know I STRESS! I was stressed to say the least. James patiently called the rental companies in St. George because there are absolutely no rental companies in Mesquite (we looked). Turns out the St. George Marathon AND the Huntsman Games were going on and they had NO cars. Wait! One place had a car and said they'd drive out to get us - YEAH, vacation's back on. About an hour later they called to tell us the price was more than they originally told us and to top it off they would only allow 250 miles a day most of which would get eaten up with them coming to get us, us driving back to drop them off and heading back out again. After 250 miles they would charge us 25 cents a mile.. A MILE! OK - that plan was off the table and we had wasted an hour thinking we had a plan!

Needless to say there were no cars available in either Vegas or St. George. I called the San Diego hotel to cancel. I explained the situation and they refunded every dime of the hotel charges and told us we had a year to use the San Diego Zoo tickets. So lucky because we had splurged and got a 2 bedroom suite for our stay in California. I'll definitely be staying there in the future - great customer service (If you're interested it's the Residence Inn in San Diego). We called my parents and they were able to grab our trailer and come rescue us... YEAH we were going to get home! Unfortunately, they wouldn't be able to get to us until that night and we'd leave the following morning for home.

What do you do with 3 kids in Mesquite? I don't really know - it's not a place I could find too much to do for 2 adults let alone little ones. Here's what we did...

We hung out in the hotel for a while.

Went to a small arcade and spent about an hour - the kids came away with LOTS of little arcade toys so that provided another hour of entertainment.

We hung out in the hotel for a while.

Went to a buffet for lunch - that would take longer right??? Nope! Kids were tired of being cooped up so we were in and out as quickly as possible.

We hung out in the hotel for a while.

Elsha needed a nap badly so I kicked the boys out of the room in the afternoon. They had fun bowling... Jaxson won 2 out of 3 games!
 


Xander - this is bowling, not soccer. Actually he did really good despite his unique way of getting the ball down the lane. If he wasn't kicking it he was throwing it from over his shoulder.

Then we tried something new and hung out in the hotel some more :)

We walked to the nearest store (Walgreens) and bought some more toys.

Oh wait this was exciting... We hung out in the hotel for a while. hee hee


WHAT AN ADVENTURE!  We had fun just hanging out together though.  Any way you make a memory is a good way in my opinion.

Now we have tickets to the San Diego Zoo that need to be used... We're thinking Christmas time but with our luck lately on vacations I'm a little hesitant. We'll be praying for no food poisoning, no obnoxious trains at night, and no car troubles on our next outing!

Can I Do It? - Yes I Can!

Here's what I should be doing

• Picking up all the kids toys that are surrounding me.
• Folding the loads of laundry that need to be done.
• Making the next week's menu & going grocery shopping (my LEAST fav chore!)
• Finishing the Halloween craft project I started this week.
• I'm sure there's more... but I'll stop there.

Here's what I am doing...

LEARNING HOW TO CREATE MY OWN BLOG BACKGROUNDS! I made the one for my craft blog a while ago and wanted to tackle my personal blog as well. This Halloween one is REALLY simple but I wanted to get it all figured out before I spent too much time making an intense background.

I need your help. I know what it looks like from my computer but I'm worried that with different screen sizes and resolutions it will look funny on other people's computers. So... does everything look right, lined up, in the right spot?

My Hands May Be Small...

But I can still wrap Daddy around my finger!

Elsha is a Daddy's girl to the extreme. To be honest, I don't think James minds. This is a piture of him getting ready to go to work. See... he's putting his shoes on... oh, he's not??? That's right, Elsha was awake and he couldn't tell her no when she wanted some attention.

The other day I learned that she had followed him into the bathroom and insisted that he hold her. Oh, how I wish I had a picture of him sitting on the pot holding her!

Another time James was holding her (a very common thing in our home) and turned his head to talk to me. Elsha firmly grabbed his chin with both hands and turned him back to face her.

According to Elsha no one and nothing shall detract from the attention she gets from Daddy!

One Day Down...

Xander started pre-school today. We've both been excited for his new class to start. He'll be going 2 days a week (instead of one) and the best part - THERE'S BUS SERVICE from my front door to the school and back again. YEAH!

I asked James yesterday if he thought it was weird that I'm not emotional about the kids going to school. In fact I'm more than a little excited for both to eventually be in school and am thinking of starting an advent calendar of some sort. I shall title it "Days To Mom's Sanity." James assured me I'm normal and everyone that gets emotional are the weirdos. Well that did it - I was fated to get emotional over something.

We got ready this morning, had a big breakfast and talked about what was going to happen today. New school, new teachers, new routines, first time on a bus (and without parents to boot). It was going to be a big day. Xander was happily singing "School Today, School Today" while running around the house and trying to convince me we needed to leave NOW. I decided to pass on the bus ride to school for the first day and would take him myself (all planned ahead with the driver of course). We arrived at school about 10 minutes early - perfect timing if I do say so myself. I talked to the teachers and said goodbye to Xander. I got a little wave as he ran in the classroom - obviously not going to miss me!

On my way back to the car I stopped to talk to the bus driver to confirm Xander's trip home and that he'd be being picked up on Monday. The teacher told me it would be a different driver & bus for the trip home. WHAT!?! I told his teachers to be sure he would get on bus #64 and now there won't be a bus #64?!? The bus driver went on to tell me that he didn't know who the other bus driver was or what bus number it would be. Luckily, one of the teachers was outside with me and said she'd have it all figured out before the kids got done with school. I looked at her and whole heartedly said "You get my boy home safe" She smiled and casually said "We'll get him home." That's when it hit me! I felt the emotions building up in my throat and I couldn't talk. It was part awe that my son is growing up so fast but mostly fear that I wouldn't be bringing him home. This is a whole new experience for me - trusting strangers with my kid and on the road no less!

Class got out at 1:30 - I figured the bus ride would take up to an hour. How many horrible moms put their toddlers on a bus? Not many probably - he'd be home in no time. 2:00 rolled around and I started getting ancy. I wanted to get a picture of Xander coming out of the school bus so I had my camera ready and was on watch. 2:30 came and went and I was quickly turning into PANIC-MOM. I had the front door open because I wouldn't want to waste precious seconds opening the door when he got home. I was sitting, on the floor, looking out our glass door waiting and waiting and waiting. It was HORRID and the longest 15 minutes of my life. Finally, I could see the promised bus coming. I went outside and started down the walk. The bus stopped in front of my house and then started up the road! WAIT! The bus backed up when she saw a crazy woman in the mirror waving. I climbed on board to get Xander - he was the last one on the bus - and completely forgot to get a picture! ARGH!

Keeping Me Guessing

I came in from weeding and I could tell something was different but I wasn't sure what it was. It took me a moment to pin it down but I did... Elsha was sitting on the couch with Daddy watching football (yes she likes football - crazy girl), Jaxson was downstairs watching a show - I could hear the TV going. Where was Xander? It was just too quiet!

"Honey, where's Xander?"

"Um, last I checked he was in his room but the door was closed so I didn't bother him."

"HUH? You're his DAD you're SUPPOSED to bother him."

"He sounded like he was getting in bed - I think he wanted to go to sleep."

"HUH? Xander doesn't do naps. It's a fight each time."

I went to check on him.

I slowly opened the door just in case he was asleep - but really I was just trying to be sneaky so I could catch him red handed getting into whatever trouble he was getting into.

The lights were off.

He was in bed.

His was snuggled under his favorite blanket.

SLEEPING!

(OK! I can't get the picture to load in the right direction and it's really, REALLY frustrating! I'm done messing with it so you get to see it sideways - sorry)

See that green strap under his blanket. He got a new backpack for school today and wouldn't take it off, apparently not even to sleep!